FEAPS INTRODUCTION
For this lesson, we did an experiment with cornstarch and water. This was a follow up lesson to a previous introduction lesson on matter. Students learned what matter was and the three states-solid, liquid, and gas. For this lesson in particular, we were focusing on solids and liquids. The interesting thing about mixing cornstarch and water is when you squeeze it, it feels like a solid, but when you let go, it flows like a liquid. REFLECTION This was the one of the first hands-on science lessons we did with students this year. This was also the first time I asked students to complete a lab report with the lesson. This experiment required a lot of pre-planning and setting up. I wanted the lesson to go as smoothly as possible so I pre-portioned out the cornstarch for every student ahead of time while they were at specials. It also helped that this was the last lesson of the day because it was a messy one! I started out the lesson activating students' prior knowledge of matter of what we learned in previous lessons. We then talked about expectations for doing a science experiment and handling materials. I had written on the board "During an experiment, Scientists..." ahead of time so that we could write expectations as a class, but I completely skipped over that and ended up not writing everything on the board. Even though I had prepped materials ahead of time, it was still hectic passing out materials during the experiment and making sure every student was using their materials appropriately. I had students calling out during the whole experiment that they needed more water, or more cornstarch, or they wanted to see if there mixture was the right consistency. I felt like I was all over the place and unable to really activate their thinking. A lot of misbehavior went unnoticed, as well. At 5:52 into the lesson, a little girl got out of her seat and dropped a note on a boys desk as she walked by. Then about a minute later, she walked back and picked up the note that he had responded to. Other students were looking at the camera, dancing, or making faces. ANALYSIS This lesson was extremely overwhelming, but I am glad I had the experience to complete a science experiment. I realized that no matter how much planning you put into a lesson, something will always go wrong or unexpected. The experiment I was following did not give me an exact measurement of water to add to the cornstarch, so I ended up added too much or too little which caused chaos with my students and me having to walk around adding more water or cornstarch to there bowls. Behavior management with my students continues to be an ongoing struggle, but in their defense, this was a cool experiment and I know they were excited. I expected them to be a little crazy, but they had trouble following step by step directions. I asked them to use one finger to touch the cornstarch and I had students putting there whole hands in and making a huge mess. I also realized how difficult it is to balance productive learning while dealing with that chaos.
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AuthorDanyelle Estill Archives
April 2018
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